READY-TO-WEAR SPRING/SUMMER 2017

Stella McCartney

By the end of her show, when Stella McCartney's models were dancing, rollicking and having fun on the catwalk, the designer had fulfilled her dream.

“The show is about the spirit of love and hope and being in the moment," she said. "With the world we are living in today, it is a reaction to that and a celebration of the experience of life."

Stella went on to explain that she had reduced the number of seats at the show - although still at the gilded Paris Opera House, the Palais Garnier, from 900 to 200, "for a little more intimacy".

So, was this supposed to be a slo-mo vision of womanly style? The show was rather a bold remake of a female wardrobe with a lot of big, squishy trousers which were drawn in, as if by a string, at the waist. With that easy, soft look - equally for a skirt or a dress - went honey colours and tactile faux-suede surfaces.

The silhouette had a gentle touch of the 1980s, but were very much designs that would be worn by a strong, free woman of today. Swish those long fringes from waist to knees! Gather up a neckline with more fringe fabric as the dress slopes off one shoulder!

But perhaps the strongest message was the one printed repeatedly on sporty clothes from denim to tubes of jersey: "Thanks Girls" the affirmation read, followed by models hopping, skipping and kicking their way across the runway.

One other message came out in the form of Stella's husband Alasdhair Willis: he was wearing a suit from the McCartney menswear collection.

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